A question about using text from a Wikipedia article

You see, as a sort of a personal "niche project" of mine, I've decided to create a completely new site (i.e. beside the already existing "computing-related ones"; see my signature for links if you want to), therefore I thought it would be good to do a site about something that relates to me, and about which I could write also in future ...


So I've decided to create a website related to a clarinet musical instrument. First I created a site at "150m" free-host: http://clarinet.150m.com/index.html (this one's without Google AdSense ads), and later after I saw the nasty ads this particular free-host ads, I created also two variants hosted at "50webs" free-host: http://clarinet.50webs.com/index.html, http://clarinet.50webs.org/index.html.


Now, the thing is that (as I mention in the site's "Disclaimer"; it's in fact on all the pages) I use the technical clarinet-related information on the article on Wikipedia. And so I am curious, is this OK, is it not, how much can I modify the text so that it's not considered a "Wikipedia property" anymore, or on the other hand, if I don't modify it at all, wold that be OK ??!!!


thanks in advance, tayiper

 

*bump (ing)*

 

Wikipedia content is in public domain. We can use it on our sites as we wish.

Modify the content so that it doesn't get google penalty. You can use www.copyscape.com to see if it is still similar to the original site's content.

Also a suggestion. I think you should get a domain name instead of a subdomain. A .com domain name would look much professional.

truly,
Aditya

 

I'd second that about getting a unique domain.

And I'll also second what was said regarding editing. Try to avoid the duplicate content penalties whenever possible.

 

That's not true, Wikipedia content is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. If you copy something from Wikipedia or modify a Wikipedia article for your site, the main requirements are that your new content must also be licensed under the GFDL, and you must credit Wikipedia.

You should look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights for all the details (and the actual text of the GFDL for all the legal details).

 

I think as long as you credit wikipedia you should be o.k, I think the same goes for pictures on wikipedia.

 

All the content on Wikipedia is not Public Domain. People say that but if you read their terms, they have several pages to explain this.

Read their Faq

I was about to use some content for one of my sites, but I decided to read their TOS, and it was stated there that some content are copyrighted.

Then I forgot that idea.

You must check before.

If I am wrong, it would be nice.

 

No, you still have to follow all of the requirements of the GFDL. Just crediting them isn't enough to meet the licensing requirements.

 

regards, tayiper